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Why Be Accessible
The
web is a phenomenal invention. It has changed the world in barely a decade
and will undoubtedly shape all our lives in the years to come. It's strength
lies in it's universality - everyone can be a part of it. That is why there
are compelling business, legal, technological and moral reasons to ensure
that no-one is excluded.
If your website is not accessible then it’s not doing its job properly. It is not reaching people that it should. The result of this is that your organisation is not being as successful as it could be.
There are 8.7 million disabled people in the UK. Their legal rights are protected by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA (1995). If you are responsible for creating or maintaining a website then you have a duty to take reasonable steps to make your website accessible.
The strength of the internet is that there is no single or unique way that people view websites. Some people use PC's others Mac's. Broadband is common in some places but you can also look at many websites through a mobile phone. This flexibility also enables many disabled people to use the web.
Appropriately designed websites should be, for example, able to be:
- viewed in large print
- read through a screen reader
- navigated without a mouse
- easily translated into other languages
- accessed in a range of browsers
Websites should not
- confuse or disorient with moving or flickering images
- use inappropriately complex language
- contain graphics that have low contrast
Getting this right across all impairment groups and for all situations appears to be difficult. To help developers achieve this standards have been created which, if followed, will go a long way to ensuring websites are accessible.
